


It Starts with a Wish

by nu-exo (Nekohime)



Category: NCT (Band), WayV (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22529149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nekohime/pseuds/nu-exo
Summary: The man lowered himself to a knee before Ten, reaching out a hand to tip Ten’s chin up with a finger.  “You ask for a lot, little prince. You have a dragon’s hunger.”Ten laughed weakly, a defeated sound even to his own ears.  “So I’ve been told.”
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 32
Kudos: 230
Collections: In Every Lifetime: A KunTen Fan Week





	It Starts with a Wish

**Author's Note:**

> I had grand plans for all the things I'd finish for KunTen Week (hah) but unfortunately this also turned out to be the week I worked 6 days straight. Life really be like that sometimes. Anywho, this is one of the many ficbunnies bouncing around my head at any given point in time, and I just really needed to get this out, hopefully you guys enjoy it!
> 
> (Finished and posted before running off to work so...there will be minor errors...hopefully no major ones. Will be edited tonight.)

Ten eyed the man in front of him with a tempered sort of interest.

He was handsome, almost painfully so. Cheekbones high, jaw strong, and eyes softly curved with the way he was smiling. An uncommon sort of beauty, rare even in the high courts Ten came from.

He was also entirely out of place, sitting amongst the sparse furnishings of what for all intents and purposes was an abandoned, decrepit tower.

It kept Ten on edge even as he leaned against the doorway’s frame, just outside the threshold of the circular room, a desire to step closer waging an internal battle against his better judgement. The man in front of him was beautiful. And, without a doubt, he was dangerous.

“It’s not often I get visitors,” the man said, tone mild, voice lilting in a way that suggested amusement at a joke only he was privy to. “Let alone unannounced ones.”

“Not often one finds handsome young men in towers, either,” Ten countered, a friendly smile and teasing note covering the suspicion simmering at the front of his mind.

The man let out a sharp bark of laughter, no elegance or faux gracefulness to it. It made him glow all the more. Ten breathed in slowly, something warm curling through his veins. This beautiful man played perfectly to the avarice inherent in Ten’s nature. The greedy beast that wanted to claim anything lovely it came across.

“I suppose you’re not wrong,” he admitted, regarding Ten with a curious light to his eyes, “Though I doubt the story that brought me here, to this tower, is nearly as interesting as the one that brought  _ you _ here, your highness.”

Ten cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, and what makes you think that?”

“Because only something  _ truly _ interesting could bring a prince all the way out to a middle of nowhere town like Lansai.”

“There are merits to Lansai,” Ten hummed, matching the subtle sharpness to the other man’s expression. “I was more interested as to why you assumed I was nobility.”

The man snorted softly. It was his turn to raise an arch eyebrow. “It was never a question. The only thing I wasn’t quite sure of was whether you were a lordling, or a princeling. You all act so…similar.”

Ten laughed, pleased by the playful bite he could hear in the man’s voice. “Proud?”

The man’s smile turned sharp, pointed. “Confident.”

“Mm, fair enough.” Ten thought of the scorch marks and cracked fragments of burnt bones he’d passed on his way up the tower. “I imagine you’ve come across quite a few over-confident nobles to recognize that trait so immediately.”

The man shrugged, a band of light from the setting sun catching on thin, soft cloth and softer golden skin. It drew Ten’s eyes like a moth to flame, a dangerous and unreasonable urge to cross the distance and touch washing over him with an odd, inexplicable intensity. Ten blinked, brows furrowing. The man, noticing (and Ten also imagined not much escaped this man’s notice), let his lips curl into a dark smile, eyes glittering.

“None that didn’t burst in here, swords at the ready. Which begs the question why  _ you’re _ here, little prince.”

Ten pretended to think that over, stepping further into the room only to lean against the wall, feeling the man’s eyes track his movements, attention split between Ten himself and the sword at his hip.

“Well now, that’s a rather complicated question,” he said, corners of his lips tipped up in a constant partial smile. An attempt at non-threatening that Ten highly doubted worked. “There are those who’d say it was to hunt a dragon. One that’s been sighted landing in the woods around here, rather close to this tower, in fact. One who the townspeople were adamant in denying exists even while passing soldiers insist it does.”

“Oh?” The man drawled, lovely, cold eyes narrowing a fraction. His fingers — gilded with delicate bands of woven gold that curled up to his wrists — which had been tapping a slow, steady rhythm against his knee, stilled for a brief moment. A slip in his otherwise well crafted facade of mild interest. “How daring.” He tilted his head, soft hair shifting across his forehead, the shoulder of his simple linen clothing slipping and revealing more sun touched skin. “Might I ask why?”

“How else is one meant to seek help from a beast others fear?” Ten answered, entirely honest and open even as his hand came to rest lightly on the pommel of his sword. 

After all, it’d do him no good if he confirmed his suspicions only to wind up a pile of ash at the end of it.

The man blinked at him, posture straightening in genuine surprise, attention solely on Ten’s face, watching for a change in expression to reveal what he’d said to be a lie. The man wouldn’t find such proof, though. Ten came on the excuse of conquest and death to look for help and salvation. He’d been willing to wager everything on this, even slipping away from the guards his father had posted to him and traveling on his own to reach this neutral town in neutral lands.

“You’re either stupidly hopeful or foolishly brave if you’ve come all this way to ask for help from a fire breathing beast,” the man scoffed, a slight waver to his voice. “What dragon would ever believe such a thin excuse?”

“One who chooses to talk to a man he thought was here to kill him, as opposed to burning him on sight.”

Ten watched a muscle jump in the man’s jaw, his appearance turning to cold, brutally beautiful marble. He sucked in a sharp breath, eyes flashing. Now, his skin truly glowed. Not from the warm, setting sun, but from what Ten imagined were embers, sourced from deep inside the man’s chest,  _ begging _ to be released.

“You knew, then?”

Ten shrugged. “I suspected. The poorly hidden bones were a bit of a giveaway.”

“Never seemed to hinder the ones who came before you.”

“Clearly. I doubt they’d be dead if they had.”

The man hummed. “There were enough who would’ve taken advantage in other ways when they found something other than a snarling monster waiting behind that door. Desire to kill me or not, those would still have met their fate.”

A curl of dark, misplaced rage lashed in Ten’s chest at the thought of supposed gallant knights past finding this man and deciding to try and have their way. “Anyone with such intentions deserves a worse fate than fire, in my humble opinion.”

“I’m sure your opinion is anything but humble, your highness,” the man snorted, even as his countenance seemed to soften, some of the ice leaving as hints of curiosity creeped in.

“In the face of one such as you, lord dragon, it is.”

“Ah,” the man loosened his posture to recline back in the seat he’d taken up, limbs taking on a lazy arrangement, skin flashing where the loose cloth of his clothing shifted. “So we’ve dropped all pretenses, then.”

Heat rolled through Ten, a gentle wash of it that had his mouth running dry. He wondered, vaguely, if this dragon had the sort of magic to manipulate a man’s mind, their desires. Or if this was simply attraction to a beautiful being with the strength to crush Ten if he so wanted.

Ten’s eyes curved with his smile, a touch simpering, a smidge coy. “No need to insult each other’s intelligence further.”

The man’s eyes widened a fraction, something dark and hungry sparking in them before he matched Ten’s expression bit for bit.

_ Oh. It looks even better on him. _

“Fair enough,” he said. Ten watched with held breath as he seemed to mull something over before rising to his feet, powerful muscles working under the thin layers of his clothes. He came closer, steps predatory in their grace, stopping only when he was within arms distance of Ten. “If we’re laying everything bare, why have you come here, little prince? What do you seek at risk of your life?”

Ten considered his next move carefully. There were a handful of ways he could approach this, all of which he’d come up with in the event he survived this far. None seemed quite right, though. The man- the  _ dragon _ before him wouldn’t be impressed by an excuse of honor, or a noble quest. Wouldn’t be moved by a plight of the courts, or a tale of tragedy. None of the ways he would have framed his request would work. Of that he was startlingly sure. So, honesty, then. Pure, bald-faced honesty. Something that had Ten’s lungs seizing, unwilling to allow breath for the words to pass his lips. Something that had more fear and distress running through his mind than the threat the man before him posed.

Ten forced air into his lungs and dropped to his knees, curling forward into a bow of full supplication.

“I seek power, and I seek your help,” he said, nose brushing the smooth stone of the floor. “There are those who would have me dead,” he raised his head enough to look up at the man, noting the furrow between his brows, his lips pressed into a line, “You ask what I seek at the risk of my life? I seek my life, and the right to live.”

“And who would be so bold as to threaten the life of a prince?” the man asked, though Ten suspected he already knew.

“My father. The king.”

“The immortal ruler who slayed my kin and bathed in their blood.”

It wasn’t a question. Ten wondered if the man had known who he was,  _ exactly _ who he was, the moment he’d stepped through the door. It wasn’t a question, but Ten answered anyway. “Yes.”

“You’d have me help you depose your king?”

Ten’s hands curled into fists. The scars from his last brush with death still burned along his back. They’d be ugly when they healed. His beloved father had made sure of that. “ _ Yes _ .”

The man lowered himself to a knee before Ten, reaching out a hand to tip Ten’s chin up with a finger. “You ask for a lot, little prince. You have a dragon’s hunger.”

Ten laughed weakly, a defeated sound even to his own ears. “So I’ve been told.”

“Did you come to me looking for a dragon’s hatred?”

Ten shook his head. “I came to you, because, if you existed, if you were here, I could think of no other who’d understand a will to live, in the face of the king, as anything but greed. Unless you, too, view my desire for life as a selfish act.”

“To want to live is the most basic of our instincts,” the man scoffed. “Only your father and his ilk would frame it as a  _ selfish act _ .”

Ten didn’t speak, holding still, keenly aware of how vulnerable he’d made himself. Of how vulnerable he’d allowed himself to be. He waited.

“You came with a daring request, your highness,” the man started, “Most others would’ve struck you down once they’d scented the Bai steel at your hip, but fortune smiled on you.” He tapped Ten’s chin, an almost affectionate action that verged on a caress with the way his touch lingered. “Some of those your father killed were loved ones I dearly mourned. If you’ve come asking for help taking his head, I’ll gladly offer it.”

Ten let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, relief a sweet balm in his veins. 

“Just know,” the man continued, rich brown eyes turning a startling shade of blue, “should you betray me, the pain I’ll make you feel will be tenfold whatever your little human mind could possibly conjure.”

Ten held his gaze, nodded. “I don’t doubt it, lord dragon.”

The man smiled, sweet and indulgent. “Good. My name is Kun, little prince. I look forward to working with you.”

“Ten,” Ten breathed, “And I’m rather sure the pleasure is all mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment or kudos! They're very much appreciated. Also feel free to come say hi to me on twitter! I'm @nu_exooo on there ^_^


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